Here’s the good news about the live-action Star Wars television series that has been in development for years: It’s apparently just like the movies, but on a weekly basis. Here’s the bad news: It may be too expensive to actually make.

The live action TV show is kind of on hold because we have scripts, but we don’t know how to do ’em. Because, they literally are Star Wars, only we’re going to have to try to do them [at] a tenth [of] the cost. And, it’s a huge challenge… lot bigger than what we thought it was gonna be.

It’s a shame, because what we do know about the project makes it sound like something worth seeing.

The series was originally proposed as 100 hour-long episodes filling in the space between the fall of the Republic at the end of Revenge of The Sith and the ongoing rebellion against the Empire seen at the start of A New Hope, although producer Rick McCallum later suggested an alternate plan of running multiple series simultaneously to tell a massive arc of somewhere around 400 episodes. The show would be different in tone from either the movies or The Clone Wars, moving towards a darker, more character-based storytelling instead of the operatic sweep of Star Wars as we know it, and would’ve, for the most part, focused on non-Jedi or Sith characters (Which makes sense, considering the Jedi were effectively wiped out in Revenge, and considered a myth by the start of A New Hope), with McCallum telling an interviewer to “think about bounty hunter” when it comes to lead characters. George Lucas himself was rumored to be writing the show’s first season, but other writers were being brought onboard, or at least interviewed for positions; in his book A Writer’s Tale, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies talks about meeting with Lucas to work on the show (He turned down the opportunity, sadly; I would’ve loved to have seen his take on the universe, considering how much of his Who seemed a love letter to Lucas).

I have to admit, I really hope that this show finds its way into production and onto our television screens; there’s something massively appealing to me about the idea of longform exploration of the Star Wars universe pre-Star Wars (the first movie), when everything was becoming the world so many people fell in love with the first time around, without the expectations and plot weight of having to tell Darth Vader’s origin story at the same time. Fingers crossed that the Force will ultimately be strong with this one.

MORE RUMORS FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

There probably will be more Star Wars films. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be done with the Star Wars universe after the Prequels, George Lucas has been unable to leave well enough alone, and there’s a live action TV series in the works to go alongside the currently airing Clone Wars cartoon. But what will this movie be?

The question is raised once again, this time by musician Thomas Dolby – yes, the guy who sang ‘She Blinded Me With Science.’ On his blog he talks about hanging out with a Lucas guy. Here’s the pertinent quote:

My host is friend and former collaborator Paul Sebastien, who over the years has worked for Xbox, Playstation, and now LucasArts. Last night he was telling me a little about the forthcoming Star Wars-related TV show, movie and online games—very cool indeed.

There are a lot of things this could mean. It could mean, quite simply, that Sebastien spilled the beans to Dolby about a super secret return to the cinema for Star Wars. Possible, but highly unlikely. The folks who work at Lucasfilm and LucasArts don’t spill beans. Maybe Dolby is breaking a major confidence here, but that sentence doesn’t read like he’s telling tales out of school.

So Dolby could just be plain old wrong – there are no Star Wars movies in the pipeline. Or he could be confused: maybe Lucas is planning to kick start his live action show with a movie. Lucas took the first few episodes of Clone Wars and jammed them together into a film; it would be easy to do the same with the first two or three episodes of a live action show. But then again, maybe there’s no theatrical component at all and Lucas just wants to start his new show with a two hour TV movie – basically a double sized episode.

This raises an interesting semantic question, though: do you count the Clone Wars movie as a Star Wars movie? Are there seven Star Wars films in your personal canon, or just the six? I bet more people would count a big screen version of the live action show as a real movie than the CG Clone Wars.

At any rate, it’s going to happen. There will be a new Star Wars movie, a real one. Maybe even one that grows out of the end of the TV series. But I think we’re some time from that happening.

In the meanwhile, check out this video of David Lynch recently discussing meeting with George Lucas about directing Return of the Jedi. It’s pretty funny.

In the history of cinema it’s hard to top the utter disappointment felt when watching George Lucas’ follow ups to the original Star Wars movies. From the horror of Jar Jar Binks (a completely humourless animated character introduced in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) to the victory of special effects over substance, the style and sense of wonder present in the original three movies was nowhere to be found. With this level of disappointment, it’s great to read an interview inTotal Film Magazine where George Lucas reveals that he wants his new live action Star Wars TV series to be more like the original movies.

“It’s kind of likeEpisode IV — it’s funny and there’s action, but it’s [a] lot more talky. It’s more of what I would call a soap opera with a bunch of personal dramas in it. It’s not really based on action-adventure films from the ’30s — it’s actually more based on film noir movies from the ’40s!”

If by “more talky” he means more plot, depth and a more compelling narrative, I’m all for it. Even better was a quote from the show’s producer Rick McCallum on the Star Wars Blog:

“It’s a much darker, much more character-based series, much more adult, and we’re hoping that it will go on for up to 400 episodes,” he said.

In 2007, McCallum also said that the new TV show is “something that can go on for years and years. One of the ideas is that we’ll have multiple series going on in about two or three years’ time.”

More adult and more character focused (and darker without being silly!) is certainly what’s needed to overcome the problems of the last three Star Wars movies. I’m aware that they made a great deal of money, but I can’t imagine ever watching them again – even if they are released as special editions and converted to 3D. Imagine Jar Jar Binks in 3D! It’s too horrible to contemplate. If they really do make 400 episodes though, it will be hard to sustain the writing quality. Excellent TV series such as Lost, Fringe and Heroes struggle to avoid cliché and poor plotting and they are nowhere near the 400 episode mark.

According to io9 (via Wookiepedia and The Celebrity Cafe) the new Star Wars TV show takes place in the “dark times” between the last prequel Star Wars EpisodeIII: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, when most of the Jedi and anti-emperor politicians were hunted down and killed. Apparently it will be a gritty and dark series, which will star minor characters, including Boba Fett, C-3PO, and the Emperor Palpatine.

MTV recently revealed that the action will follow the Rebel Alliance as it slowly gains strength against the Empire, and as he did with the animated Clone Wars series, Lucas will write and produce an entire year’s worth of episodes before looking for a cable channel to air them.

When asked what he thought about the new Star Wars TV show by The Huffington Post, Mark Hamill, the actor who played the iconic role of Luke Skywalker in the original three Star Wars movies, appears to agree that George Lucas lost his way in the last three movies and that a TV series is a “positive step” forward:

“They’re going to really have to rely on good scripts rather than making it some special effects extravaganza,” Hamill said. “… he kind of got caught up in making it bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until you’re just exploding with special effects all over the screen like some fireworks display. And to me, I think it’s more important to make the audience care about the characters. And I think with an hour script for TV, he might be able to reboot in a way that’s positive.”

When asked whether he would make an appearance in the new show he added:

“I don’t think it’s set in the time frame. I don’t know what the time frame is. My guess would be, if Luke appears, they’d want him younger. [Laughs] So they’d get a different actor. I really don’t know.”

Way back in 2005, the BBC reported that Lucas will write and produce the first season and then “hand it off from there”, while remaining executive producer and general overseer throughout the rest of the series. The style they are aiming for is apparently similar to Lucas’ Young Indiana Jones TV series.

There is no fixed release date for the show, but it’s expected sometime in 2011 or 2012 (with the end of 2010 no longer a possibility). According to MTV, casting for the series is currently underway.

Let’s hope the new Star Wars TV series, the first Star Wars spin off featuring live actors, makes up for the sins of the George Lucas follow up movies. I can’t live with another Jar Jar Binks or a young Anakin Skywalker in a futuristic racing vehicle (with sequences that look surprisingly like Xbox or PS3 computer games!). The sacrifices George Lucas appears to have made for the sake of blatant merchandising are disturbing.

Interestingly, speaking of Jar Jar, I came across an old Los Angeles Times article recently that reported that even some of the Lucasfilm team who worked on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menacehad doubts about Jar Jar Binks and recognised he would alienate audiences. Phantom‘s visual effects supervisor Rob Coleman told a seminar that he brought his concerns to George Lucas, who told him that he had designed Jar Jar to appeal to small children. “I only had one audience member to please and that was George Lucas,” Coleman said. “If he was happy with what we were doing with Jar Jar, then I was happy.”

Apologies to fans of the last three Star Wars movies, but they just don’t do it for me at all. Even making allowances for being younger and more impressionable when I watched the originals, the contrast is too stark.Remember the love story between Anakin and Padme? It was a frightening thing. Please George, save me from the memories of that walking talking animated buffoon, the one and hopefully only Jar Jar Binks. Erase the nightmare. Let your live action Star Wars TV show be a compelling new chapter in a series that has lost its way but deserves to rise from the ashes.

Alright younglings, this might be the Star Wars show for you! Yes, in the same tradition of the Marvel Superhero Squad cartoon, the Galactic Heroes toy line is rumored to have its own television show, aimed specifically at preschoolers and Kindergartners. If the rumors are true, they are currently in pre production with the working title: Squishes (let’s pray they stick with the Galactic Heroes toyline title!).

This move comes at a good time for Lucas, while his current The Clone Wars TV series is taking a turn towards the Dark Side of kids television, this title will be aimed at the youngest of the Star Wars fans, the ones who might find the current Clone Wars disturbingly dark.

What can you expect? Well it’s too early to say, but if one takes into account the Marvel version, this incarnation of the Star Wars characters should be a much lighter and all around more lighthearted Star Wars adventure for everyone.

At the present time there is still no word if Cartoon Network or its WB sister companies will be airing the series. EUCantina decided to hold off on posting this article until after April First worried it might have been a April Fool’s Prank that was leaked. It’s safe to say this wasn’t part of the pranks, whether or not it will see the light of day is another subject. But either way faithful Star Wars fans EUC will keep you informed. Stay Tuned!

In what is almost a follow up to our previous post on live-action series set location speculation, The Wall Street Journal has published a piece highlighting the fact that the live-action series seems to be drifting away from the Czech Republic as a set location due to a lack of tax incentives. Could Hungary be the alternative? Click here for the full piece and see below for an excerpt.

“Mr. Lucas has chosen the Czech Republic for smaller projects. The filmmaker and his executive producer, Rick McCallum, recently completed the filming of “Red Tails,” a low-budget movie about African-American fighter pilots during World War II, in which locations in the Czech Republic doubled for Italy.

With a budget of $25 million, “Red Tails” was relatively inexpensive to make for Lucasfilm, Mr. Lucas’s production company, and Mr. McCallum said the high skill level of Czech film crews overcame the lack of tax breaks.

But this likely won’t be enough for the “Star Wars” television series, with a planned budget of $100 million to $150 million annually to shoot about 100 episodes over four years, Mr. McCallum said. “I had a wonderful experience on ‘Red Tails,’ but in order to bring a larger production to the Czech Republic, the government would need to be competitive with other countries’ tax incentives,” Mr. Lucas said.”

Rumours about the pre-production of Star Wars, the live action series, to be shot in Australia, have been confirmed by several inside sources.

The quality and style of writing that will be used will be of the highest quality, and local, and writers will be sourced from outside traditional Science Fiction shows. Several big names within the Australian industry (including writers from the Award-winning Love My Way and the Award-winning Secret Life of Us) have been approached by Star Wars uber-producer, Rick McCallum.

Love My Way and Secret Life of Us can be characterised by the focus on relationships and emotional landscapes (traditional ‘chick shows’, if you will). Bringing this element into the world of Star Wars sees a marked departure of the final three films and animated Clone Wars, where the primary audience was children.

This throws the new series into a whole new spotlight, and should excite fans of the Star Wars universe looking towards more adult fare.

More solidification of rumour into fact will come as soon as possible.

Joel then went on to show how the art style of Clone Wars influences details and subtle as even the snow or the water. Passing through some videos, he describes the process of creating the flamethrowers that will be used in season two. Revealing the process he used, he actually created models for each frame of the flame itself, then sped the animation up quickly – and this process gives the fire a definite ‘Clone Wars’ effect, making it stylish and artistic to match the show. “It’s been a great learning experience,” he goes on to say, “Since I came over to animation from ILM (Industral Light and Magic) I was trying to break myself away from the photo-realistic style I have always gone for.” By opting for a stylistic choice and approach, the production team achieves an economical solution far less taxing that expensive computer physics simulation ordinarily employed for such effects.

Lucas Gearing Up Live-Action ‘Star Wars’ TV Show?

Over on SciFi Squad, Mike Moody debuts his new weekly column called TV Geek Week, which will not only talk about the latest and greatest news in geeky TV land, but will also take a look at what fanboy-ish goodies are arriving on the boob tube this week. Check it:

Is George Lucas finally moving ahead with that promised live-action Star Wars TV show? Sources say yes. Sources also say the show will be produced in Australia by a hand-picked crew of Aussie TV vets. And we might even get to see it before the end of 2010. But I got a question: Do we really want a live-action Star Wars TV show?

Well, yeah, of course we do. For most of us, the original Star Wars trilogy was a thrilling entry point into the bizarre and inspiring world of science fiction. For an ’80s kid like me, Star Wars was nothing less than a dazzling blast of awesome that I couldn’t get out of my head. There was nothing cooler. (I wore the sh*t outta my Yoda jammies.) I’d love to see a Star Wars TV show deliver the same unpolished pluck, heart and spirit of the original trilogy, but we all know that’s not gonna happen.
Read the rest at SciFi Squad

Okay, well, at least another year or so anyway. Rose Byrne got the gossip wheels spinning this week when MTV News quoted her as saying her friends had been auditioning for a long-discussed live-action Star Wars television series. But EW has confirmed with a Lucasfilm rep that a casting agent in Australia is “doing some preliminary ground work, but official casting will not start until the scripts are complete.” At the earliest, the series would go into production in 2010, the rep added.

Star Wars Live Action series

George Lucas to shoot Star Wars TV series at Sydney’s Fox Studios
Link: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap…006014,00.htmlSYDNEY remains filmmaker George Lucas’ favoured location to shoot his much-hyped Star Wars spin-off TV series.The sci-fi TV series will likely be filmed at Sydney’s FOX Studios. “We’re looking to shoot it in Australia,” Lucas told a press conference at his Big Rock ranch, the site for his new animation studio, north of San Francisco. If given the green light, the live action Star Wars offshoot will be one of the most expensive TV productions made in Australia and create hundreds of acting and crew jobs for the local industry. There was speculation the as yet untitled series would begin shooting next year, but it may be pushed back to 2010. Lucas has employed two Australian scriptwriters to pen the series and continues to work on “getting all of the technology worked out” to make the show. The 63-year-old director, writer and producer, who revolutionised cinema with 1977’s Star Wars, is no stranger to Sydney. He made 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith at Fox Studios. “It is going ahead,” Lucas confirmed. “We’re in the process of writing screenplays right now. “It’s going to take a while because it’s really hard to do.” The series will not follow the regular Star Wars storylines, instead focusing on the “lower levels of life” of Lucas’ Star Wars world. “It has nothing to do with the Skywalker saga,” Lucas said. “None of the Skywalkers or anything. “This is what I call a little footnote to the Skywalker saga. “… It is about the lower levels of life, the lower depths. “They hear about the fact it is no longer a republic and now it’s an empire, but they are from a world where none of that really means too much to them.” Lucas’ Australian fans will not have to wait for the TV series for a new Star Wars adventure. The filmmaker is set to release his first animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

OK most of the this is the same but it is nice to see some news on this.
I think a lot is riding on the Clone Wars TV show for this.

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